This application claims the priority of German Application No. 197 57 736.9, filed Dec. 23, 1997, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a golf club with a striking surface for striking golf balls.
When playing golf it is important to be able to hit the golf ball out of a wide variety of situations taking into account the range, the ground, and any obstacles. The golf ball should be hit with as much control as possible in the direction of the hole. In order to meet these various requirements, different types of golf clubs are usually employed. The player usually selects the club that he feels is suitable for the next blow (shot). As a rule, at least in the area of the club head that contains the striking surface, the individual clubs differ in club material, the angle of the striking surface, and the surface quality in the area of the striking surface.
The goal of the present invention is to improve golf clubs in terms of their striking properties and to design them, especially in the area of their striking surfaces, such that the possibilities, abilities, and suitabilities for certain applications are increased. First of all, clubs should be provided which also allow especially long blows, or to even make them possible at all. On the other hand, however, clubs for sensitive soft blows over short distances must also be provided. Finally, golf clubs should also be provided which allow for blows which generate spin on the ball.
This goal is achieved according to the invention by virtue of the fact that the golf club has a coating applied by a thermal (hot) spray method, at least in the area of the striking surface.
The advantage of the invention consists in the fact that by coating the golf club using a thermal spray process (hot spray process), a wide range of golf clubs with a wide variety of properties is made possible. This permits optimum adaptation of the properties, especially the surface properties, of the striking surface in addition to the possibilities that are offered in any case by the choice of the material of the club and especially of the club head. Thermal spray methods offer possibilities for manufacturing club coatings from a wide variety of materials, with the thermal spray method making possible coating compositions that other manufacturing methods for coatings do not allow.